Dana Nature Reserve

Dana Nature Reserve centered on the old village

Jordan's largest nature reserve, located in Taffilah province, occupying different geographical terrains with various bio-geographical zones as well, the nature reserve was found in 1989 within the area near Dana old village and along Wadi Dana

Many archaeological sites were excavated around and within the nature reserve boundaries that dates back to the stone ages (Paleolithic and Neolithic), ancient Egyptian, Nabatean and Roman settlements with remarkable presence to hydraulic installations within the excavated sites, the old copper mines were excavated at the end of the biosphere reserve to the west

Few decades ago the small village of Dana was inhabited by some local Arab from Attatah tribe, they left the village gradually moving to Al Qadisiah village above Dana, the village is the center of the nature reserve now a days and holds the visitors center as well, the village is surrounded with olive trees fields and some other fruits trees, it is rich with fresh water springs and beautiful panoramic scenes

Dana biosphere reserve is covered with hundreds of plants species, with high content of oak, juniper, and pistachio, some acacia and palm date trees and plenty of aromatic little plants, seasonal flowers and thorns, many kinds of birds and mammals such as falcons, Syrian serine, owls, Nubian Ibex, rock hyrax, porcupines, foxes and several kinds of wild cats such as Caracal, last official record to leopard was late 80's, where as some locals insist it still lives around the nature reserve in the Atafilah mountains and they called it the Arabian Tiger

Some of those species are endangered, a punch of regulations and plans were activated to protect the threaten species, breed and release programs took place there for many species like Ibex in particular, many of rules and restrictions were issued to deal with the man caused threats including hunting.​Interesting geographical diversity as well, Dana drop down from 1500 meters above sea level into almost 0 level near Wadi Araba with various geological content, Dana contains plenty of sandstone rocks connected with the entire sandstone mountains ridge to the south, beside granite and lime stone, the mountains near Wadi Araba contain huge copper content and just above the old village there cement mines​Visitors can approach Dana biosphere reserve via private cars, public transportation vehicles from Amman and many other towns in Jordan, several facilities provide accommodation there, Dana oriental village holds several local lodges where many of the houses in the village were converted into lodges preserving their old local oriental themes, Dana is very suitable to spend some time in the summer due to its moderate temperature there, where visitors can wander around easily in the hottest season in Jordan